Anti-semitic drawings found on board in Boothroyd Hall

An unknown person drew swastikas on a community bulletin board sometime between 3 p.m. April 26 and 11 a.m. April 27 on the second floor of Boothroyd Hall. A similar incident occurred last April in East Tower when a student defaced the door of a room occupied by two Jewish residents.

Alisa Babcock, a resident assistant on the floor of Boothroyd where the board was marked, was the first to report it to the Office of Public Safety. She had created the race and culture themed board where three large swastikas were drawn, along with images of male genitalia.

“It’s pretty disappointing that we are still dealing with these sorts of things in college and about such a serious topic,” she said.

Public Safety sent an email alert to the Ithaca College community the morning of April 28 classifying the incident as aggravated harassment and urging members of the community to report any information.

Dave Maley, associate director of media relations, said no individual was harassed with the drawing, but the nature of the symbol makes the incident fall within the aggravated harassment statute in New York State Law.

Sophomore Sean Themea, an RA in Boothroyd, said there should be consequences for the perpetrator.

“Someone made a bad decision, and someone will pay the price for that decision,” he said. “Boothroyd does not and will not tolerate bigotry.”

Ithaca College Hillel has also responded to the incident through its Facebook page. Igor Khokhlov, director of Ithaca College Hillel, wrote that the Jewish community was “appalled by the recent hate crime.”

The incident is still under investigation.

Correction, May 1, 2014, 10:50 a.m.:The incident was incorrectly classified as an aggravated assault instead of a case of aggravated harassment in an earlier version of this story.